[CaptainCrunch]

You know what, I hated a lot of the busy work of basic training. I hated doing hours of drill, spending hours ironing and polishing and squaring away. There were times that I just hated getting yelled at. I really hated digging a L trench.

But I loved being out in the field and getting dirty, I thought that soldiering was an art of its own. I loved the comradery, I loved night patrols and ambushes. Who couldn't love learning different weapons and becoming proficient at them. there's nothing more satisfying then seeing your bullet going through a target head from a football field or two away, or hearing the crash of a grenade. Or laughing at someone falling into a latrine hole in the middle of the night.

There's also knowing that you came through the toughest thing your ever going to do, and knowing that a lot of the guys that you served with went through the same stuff, and chances are thats a friendship for life. I miss the humor too, theres just something awesome about the crude jokes and practical jokes that were played as well.

I can say for certain, that I came through my military experience as a better person then I was when I went in, I lost a lot of that I mentality that every teenager has. You also learn that getting mad doesn't solve anything anymore, because a angry soldier is usually a bad soldier or at worse a dead soldier.